Smooth, as in ice, sailing

KINGSTON – Winter temperatures of -12 C and light winds wouldn’t be the best sailing conditions for a day out on the water.

But those conditions are almost perfect for a day of sailing — on the ice.

On Saturday and Sunday about a dozen ice boat sailors from Kingston, other parts of Ontario and Quebec got together on Col. John By Lake to do some practice racing and compare notes on the ever-changing technology of the sport.

John Curtis, a former Summer Olympics sailor and local lawyer, said he and some other of the sailors on the lake were doing some practice racing as they prepare for the world championships later this month.

"We’ve set up a race course and have run some informal races," Curtis said. "No one is keeping score but the good guys are getting a chance to test out their new techniques and their new equipment."

The DN Iceboat Worlds are scheduled for Jan. 22-28 but Curtis doesn’t know where they’ll be. It was held in Kingston on Lake Ontario two years ago.

"No one knows where they are and it’s not because it’s a secret."

Curtis said international sailors will gather in Chicago and wait to hear where the specific location is, which is to be announced on Jan. 19.

Curtis thinks it’ll be somewhere in Wisconsin but could come to Kingston again if Lake Ontario conditions are better.

The location must have good ice conditions and co-operative weather.

When the world competition was in Kingston, Curtis said the event was well-received.

"Everyone loved it, apparently it was the best worlds ever for the ice conditions, but Kingston put on a great show for everybody."

Ice boating proves, said Curtis, that people can sail not just in the warm summer months.

He said many serious sailors are on Lake Ontario for six months of the year from late April to November and by ice boating can add more time to be out on the local lakes sailing.

"You can sail more than that if you’re willing to ice boat."

Ice boats can get their speed up to 100 km/h, Curtis said, with only thin blades touching the ice and even in light winds ice sailors can get good speed up on the lake.

Ice boats move a lot faster than traditional sailboats because the hull of the boat causes drag, but the hull of an iceboat doesn’t make contact with the ice.

One of the challenges of ice boat sailing, said Curtis, is that on water sailors can read wind shifts from the colour of the water, but on ice that information is not available and sailors have to gauge the wind by feel and familiarity with the lake.

Curtis is part of a group advocating that the former Kingston Penitentiary site be turned in part into a sailing centre of excellence, and he said ice sailing can be part of that.

"This [Kingston] has become a bit of an epicentre of ice boating. There’s probably 35 people in town who have ice boats, we hosted the worlds and we fully anticipate having more events and having more training going on," he said.

"With all the technology and expertise that’s going to come with the sailing centre, they’ll be keen to work on ice boat stuff.

"It’s just an extension of that. Kingston is a sailing mecca in the summer; it’s also a sailing mecca in the winter.

"The way sailing is going it’s becoming a faster and faster sport and these boats are really fast."

Research and technology will be required in the future to keep up with the changes as ice boaters and on-the-water sailors look for more speed.

"When boats go faster the sail designs have to change and the a lot of the technology has to change."